Decided to re-upload some of my older work, including stuff I may have taken down before.

I figured since I'm not getting any use out of the songs maybe you lot can!

Chris

I've now decided to upload my songs to my YT account.. which will feature some music I previously have uploaded to NG but removed for whatever reason!

http://www.youtube.com/user/trodler

That is the link for it, friend me if you want.
Each song includes a High quality picture that (somewhat) relates to the song!

Tar
Chris

Now i love FF, as so do many other people :D
But lets face it, there are some pretty ZOMGWTF moments which remind us they are just games.
So here i am going to list my top 5 favorite WTF moments from the FF series :) Enjoy!

5. Flee on the spot - applies to almost all of them
Ok, so you've been in about 50 random battles, you're tired, you just want to get to the end of the dungeon without another battle and then.. WHOOSH. Launched into another frenzy of bright colors and catchy music, you are faced with another random battle. 'Gah' you think to your self, 'ill just flee'. After holding down the correct buttons in order to create a manual flee, we are faced with our first WTF moment; THEY ARE JOGGING ON THE SPOT. Now you may not think this is odd but why is it so hard to run away?! They are all, perfectly in sync with one and other, just jogging on the spot! pah :P

4. It doesn't matter what you wear - almost all of them, bar perhaps FFX-2, FFV
So you've been saving up for that shiny new armor for weeks now. You know, the one that costs 20,000 gil! you buy it, hand over your gil, you try it on - it fits.. but hey wait a sec.. MY CHARACTER LOOKS EXACTLY THE SAME! It seems no matter what changes to your wardrobe you make, your characters will always insist on wearing anything new.. underneath their default clothing. oh the shame.

3. raNd0m battles - applies to every single FF game.
You know in FFX when you reach the Calm Lands, and you gaze upon this huge, vast, EMPTY and beautiful field of EMPTYness? You spot a small settlement, a few chocobos and think this will be easy until... CRACK the screen shatters and you've got company. The question is: Where? Where did they come from?! seriously?! they just appear! 'Randomly' :O. Now you may say to me, 'Yeah bUt if deY dint hv randum bttls den we wd nevah lvl uP'. True, and false. Because, my friend, there are several occasions in FF games in which you can see enemies on screen before you engage them! And bear in mind these are normal enemies (in some cases bosses too)! so what is the difference?! why have some random and some visible?!

2. Only when i feel like it: a Phoenix Down Story - applies to every game in which a character dies.
In most FF games, a character dies for good. Which makes me ponder, WHY THE HELL WONT A PHOENIX DOWN SAVE THEM?! You could suggest to me that 'well when a character dies in battle they are only K.O'ed' well if that is the case, why does a spell called 'LIFE' revive them?! Surely it would be 'WAKETHEFUCKUPLAZYBASTARD' if they were not dead? And if that is also the case, why is it a game over when all characters are K.O'ed? cant they just get back up after that fatal whooping? they aren't dead! Because in some scripted battles characters have to all be K.O'ed and they are fine after that!
hmmm

1. Long arms - applies to FF I to VI
In the heat of battle, the sword is drawn. Glistening with the blood of previous enemies slain.. you go in for the final attack! Only to find you dont go in at all! Nope, you step forward a pace, swing your weapon and SOMEHOW it hits the enemy. And dont tell me the game designers couldn't do much with the earlier games when ive seen ARROWS fly and hit their target. Yup. Magic Does too! so nuhh.

DISCLAIMER: I LOVE THE FF GAMES AND THIS IS NOT ME HAVING A POP AT THEM! I AM MERELY BRINGING UP A FEW THINGS I FOUND TO BE AMUSING AND SHARING IT WITH YOU IN FORM OF A LIST BASED ON MY HONEST OPINION.

Peace!
Chris

Well ive always loved the harry potter books. I was one of those people who went to get the last book at a midnight release show.
So in the grand tradition of things, i thought, why not make a IMHO list for you guys and girls (even though nobody reads them)!

I loved all these books, so its not a 'worst to best' list, just the order i prefer them!

7. HP & The Chamber of Secrets
Good book, bit of a slow start in my opinion, but still really good and epic towards the end :)

6. HP & The Prisoner of Azkaban
Things start to turn slightly darker in this book, possibly over shadowing events to come later in the series!

5. HP & the Philosopher Stone
A great start to the series, considerably more lighthearted than the sequels, its where the legacy began :).

4. HP & the Goblet of Fire
The start of when the books go 'big'. Very sad towards the end and probably the definite turning point in the series. I remember waiting very eagerly for the next book after i laid this one down.

3. HP & the Order of the Phoenix
The biggest book, and even though it took an incredible long time to get to Hogwarts, every bit of it was incredible, right up to the end. Definitely an 'on the go' read :)

2. HP & the Deathly Hallows
Probably the most anticipated book of my life. Excitement rushed through me as i held my copy beneath my jacket in the rain waiting to get home to read it! An amazing way to end the series, tying up all the loose ends (most of them?) and bringing what felt like a life times worth of story to an epic close.

1. HP & the Half Blood Prince
Something about exactly how dark this book was always stuck with me. Learning about Voldemorts past and putting it into retrospect on exactly why he is how he is. Also the end battle and climaxed paved the way PERFECTLY for the last book. This book leaves you so confused, so excited, with a feeling of urgency to need to know how it ends, and that is why i feel its my number 1 out of the lot.

Thank you J.K Rowling!

If you liked that, why not check out my other IMHO lists?

Tarr
Chris

if you haven't already, why not check out my IMHO: top 5 best FF games, if indeed you even give a sh*t about my opinion :P!

OK so here goes IMHO the top worst 5 FF games!

5. Final Fantasy VII
NOW before i get huge stick for this, i KNOW this is a good Final Fantasy. Its just its been milked to DEATH now. I'll admit i enjoyed it i really did, but they just couldn't leave it at that. Advent Children? Dirge of Cerberus? How many Times can Sephiroth come back alive? It was a good FF and the first proper 3D one, but it is also the most commercial in the sense they saw people like it, so made movies and more games about it?! How man other FF's have such 'oh, we aren't doing this to just to make more profit out of FF7 lovers' sequels made for them!? X-2? we will get to that..
(PLEASE NOTE: This is nothing more than the authors opinion and does not represent the gaming communities general opinion. For the safety of the author, his true name and address will remain undisclosed.)

4. Final Fantasy IV
I just.. didn't like it. The characters seem really stiff... Tellah seems just like a grumpy old bastard, the twins Palom and Porom are just annoying, Edward is a wimp, Rosa seems like a dumb blonde, Cecil is emo, ETC. The music is also the worst for this game as well and i realize it was made quite some time back, but Final Fantasy III had awesome music! I thought it was really hard as well (that maybe just me, but never mind) and upon dying, my will to resume from my most recent save was almost as appealing as sleeping with a burning cactus under my pillow. Another thing to add to the kick in the nuts about the difficulty, is the fact its the only FF title i know of that uses 5 characters in battle! and you STILL loose! It annoyed me also about the Row system. its either have 3 in front and 2 in back, or 2 in front and 3 in back.. WHY CANT WE JUST CHOOSE?
Gah, im sorry FF4 lovers, but it just didnt stir well for me :(.

3. Final Fantasy IX
This got me into Final Fantasy. At the time i thought it was THE sex. The Bomb. The Bees Knees. Only after playing some Other FF titles did i realize this one had areas of weakness that over shadowed game enjoyment. First off it feels like when you get into a battle it takes AGESSS to actually get to player controlled combat. And then you feel like your waiting an age for your ATB meter to fill! Characters like Quina.. (enough said about him/her/it before i even get started on the characters because seriously.. WTF!) ruined the game for me already by trying to add this comical effect when it just really wasn't needed (hence why i never had 'it' in my party). The other characters were alright in all fairness, if not coming off a bit too 'this is my character description and i will stick to it regardless of the situation just to not appear to learn anything from the stories events'.
The music was disappointing. it was good and bad. Yin and Yang. the battle and boss battle music, i thought was very weak and not like the catchy music from previous titles. Saying that it had some very touching music at times that i DID like, ie the last boss music. The last boss, eh? Well 3 words for that. Deus Ex Machina. WHERE the hell did this 'Necron' come from? its like we dont hear a single mention of him for the entire game, and since Kuja (who is so feminine he must have been at least Bi) was not strong enough for a last boss, so they threw in a random guy who, to be honest is only tough if he uses certain moves, comes to wrap it all up. Original thinking there guys.

2. Final Fantasy II
I will be the first to admit i havent played this one a huge amount. and the sole reason is the reason i hate it so much. The level up system. WTF. Its like.. if you want to train strength, you attack, if you want your HP to rise, you have to get hit from enemies (or allies, if you found enemies seemed to not want to hit your lowest HP character, so compromised by having your own comrades fight and pray you dont KO them)?! If you wanted to Magic to increase you had to cast spells?! It seemed like a good idea to me but SERIOUSLY how can anyone not see this as being slightly flawed?! What the Hell was wrong with you get X EXP and go up to Level X!?! How can you mess up something so simple?!
But enough of that, im sorry if anyone liked FF2, but i just found its level up scheme to ruin the game, because if i cant fight the enemies to progress...

*drum roll*

and finally.. the worst FF game IMHO..

1. Final Fantasy X-2
Correct me if i am wrong, but Final Fantasy games were about adventure? treasure? story? big battles with coma-inducing graphics? little numbers on a screen that seemed to rule our lives?
So with that in mind, you can probably guess i had a bit of a shock when i popped FFX-2 into my unwilling PS2. Singing? Dancing? No.. surely this cannot be the right game?! Oh but it was. At first i thought it was aimed for girls (which is a no problem, but i always felt FF was strictly Unisex, as in it appealed to both genders) with all the singing, dancing, costumes.. but then it hit me. 3 Stereotypical female characters, all in skimpy clothing. Oh, this was aimed at guys alright.
The one thing i didnt like was the clothes. Changing clothes.. for new abilities and such? whats wrong with their current clothes? maybe this was the first Final Fantasy that realized over 60 hours normal time, and possibly years of in game time that characters wearing the same clothes throughout must get a little smelly.
Maybe i seem a little hypocritical because a similar thing is used in FFV which was one of my Favorite, but it wasn't a big deal, in this its just so.. flashy.. and the clothes are really quite revealing. Not that that is a problem, but it seems this 20% clothe 80% skin may be a simple marketing ploy to help young spotty teenagers who may or may not be familiar to the series, fap their way through the game regardless of its cast of an annoying Rikku, and completely different Yuna, and a new character Paine who looks to me that she chews more carpet than a faulty vacuum cleaner.

Well i hope you liked my Top 5 Best/Worst FF games! if you did not however, and thought some of my choices were incorrect, then just remember that it was only in my OPINION, and if you still feel strongly against what i have put, then please feel free to make your OWN god damn list.
anyways stick around for more IMHO lists soon!
pe@ce

OK so maybe this might become a new thing from me, a regular IMHO list every now and again, rather than spend hours (and even days) trying to think of an interesting topic to bring up or discuss.
So our Debut List is going to be of one of my Favorite series of all time; Final Fantasy. Lets start with the top 5 Best!

5. Final Fantasy VIII
I love this game. the first time i played through it, the junction system confused the HELL out of me. However multiple plays since that initial time has led me to find it a very clever game. You see, i thought it was too hard, until i used a GF's ability to refine healing items into spells, and then junctioned the spells to my Characters HP and hey presto! over 1000 HP THIS early in the game. I soon realized the same process could be applied to your other stats, assuming you had unlocked them with the right GF equipped. Love this game :)

4. Final Fantasy I
Now, im talking about the PSX remake, which just looks a lot better than the original and has some awesome music (not that the original is bad, i just haven't played that version). Though it may not be amazingly story driven, and there maybe times where you are left completely stumped as to what to do next, it was still an addictive game, and with choice of what team to have at the start, gave you quite a large customization over game play, (i had a warrior, fighter, black and white mage so it was nicely balanced). It also saw the beginning of the hidden 'super boss' which carried on into most future games; Warmech!

3. Final Fantasy X
What can i say? it has everything a FF could want. Amazing graphics, gripping story, so much 'play value' (i clocked in at 208 hours and i still hadn't maxed out everything, maybe im just slow...), interesting characters, a good battle system and simply awe inspiring music. Nuff said :)

2. Final Fantasy VSPOILER
Some may ask why i put this one as 2nd. I love FF5, i think its a very clever game in that you have only 4 (5) playable characters. So rather then having to switch parties every other save point so you can train up your 7th 8th and 9th character, it just kept it to the 4 (5 because of Krille.. but she just replaces Galuf). And there was always so much to do with each character, and the customization after you had learned various skills from a job, can be mixed and matched with others, to give you almost complete control over any given situation, assuming you play your cards right. Also the final boss music is my Personal favorite. And lets not forget super-bosses Omega and Shinryu (how many of you were like WTF when it was him who popped out of that chest, and not treasure D: )

*drum roll*
and at number one....

1. Final Fantasy VI
Others may disagree with my choice for number 1. But I've NEVER come across such a game with such a strong assortment of characters, each with an in depth back story that threatens to pull my heart strings at almost every turn. And there's so much to look out for! Hidden this! Hidden That! if you don't have a specific character in your party then you will miss out on some dialogue which explains their story more in depth. its clever and funny, the music is awesome and Kefka simply has to be one of the Best villains ever, and the end boss music 'Dancing Mad' is a simple work of art! The graphics and scenery are like eye candy, never have i seen a game that I've just wanted to play for hours and hours on end. It sticks to traditional FF guidelines (Levels, learn as you go kinda thing) as well as adding its own elements that make this, In My Honest Opinion, the Best Final Fantasy To date. :)

COMING SOON
IMHO The Top Five Worst Final Fantasy Games.

pe@ce

So heres the thing.
I had a terrible bout of nostalgia where all the old games i used to play as a kid filled me up and a evil desire to play them all again was erupted inside me.
Now, in the process of transferring games from the Ps1 to Ps2, a few games didn't work on the ps2(ie Monkey Hero, Final Fantasy Anthology), annoyingly these were games i wanted to play. With this in mind, i knew that if i ever wanted to fulfill my nostalgic complex i would have to buy a Ps1 in order to get these games to work.
Now first off, you'd be surprised how hard it is to get a Decent ps1 now days. First i tried a dodgy knock off place in Birmingham but alas, to no avail it failed me. However i kept the see through retro Ps1 dual shock controller i got there for £2. Next i tried my most trusted source of almost everything these days: Amazon. i got a perfect PSX for £20. I eagerly awaited its arrival two days after its purchase and excitedly opened it like a kid at Christmas.
After being a little wary if it would work, i popped in my only (at the time) remaining PS1 game, Metal Gear Solid. A rush of relief and excitement ran over me as the 'PlayStation' logo loaded on the screen. I know i could have played this game on my Ps2, but after Christmas when i got my 360 (boo, hiss) i gave it to my sister. Plus now playing ps1 games on a ps1 really made things feel more retro.
And thus began what i refer to as 'retro gaming season'.
So with much searching i set off into the big wide world with one goal in mind: find all the games you used to play as a kid. Of course a few of these had to be Amazon jobs, but when i found something in a shop, i felt like Indiana Jones after finding some long sought after treasure, long forgotten by its peers.
Eventually the games had started to stack up and my enjoyment was limitless.
Even though i felt kinda bad that my GTA 4 was sitting idle in my 360, i couldn't believe how much fun i was (and still am) having playing these games.
it amuses me how for a few £££ you can get a weeks worth of enjoyment as you reminisce childhood memories and sometimes even get further than your childhood counter part could. I think we mentally disregard the graphics and probable lack of things we find in the next gen consoles, because we just enjoy the games so much.
It kinda made me think, when i got my ps2 so many Christmas' ago, i was so eager to trade in my old ps1 and games to compensate my ps2. the same thing happened when i got my 360, all my ps2 games gone, and the console itself moved downstairs. But playing these games again now has reminded me that we sometimes neglect all the fun they gave us as kids (and adults).
So is that all we are going to do then? when the next console comes out we just forfeit the games we've been playing for the last 5 years and forget everything they've done for us, whilst we sit in Awe of the shiny new console that has more this and that?
It feels like older consoles were there for you, and built up a sorta respect, you'd look forward to playing it when you got home, and would play way past your bed time. Even though they may not be as beautiful, in depth or story driven as games we see today, these are the games that we grew up with, and at one point loved, at one point hated, at one point felt a great sense of achievement upon completion, and ultimately paved the way for future games and gaming for us for life.
Chris

Games I am Playing:

Crash Bandicoot series
Tomb Raider series
Final Fantasy series
MGS
Wild 9
Tony Hawks Pro Skater
etc.